Sunday, November 03, 2013

When a plan comes together...

I love the gallery walk strategy. It is a simple way to get students up and out of their seats. It can be used to have students examine various documents or have them participate in peer assessment and feedback. I've used it for years.

But I have a secret.

I've always been more willing to use it with my honors students than my on grade level students.

My honors students are typically still in the teacher-pleasing mode. I can scare them into behaving. They also see the value in participating in peer assessment. They work well together. When the noise level gets to be too much, I can threaten them with the loss of a letter grade and nothing more needs to be said.

My on grade level students? Not so much. They don't fear authority figures. They will only respect me if I respect them. They will only listen to me if I listen to them. Many of them carry their parents' failures in school with them as heavy luggage. That makes fear tactics useless. I'm reluctant to let them up and out of their seats because I immediately relinquish control.

And I am nothing if not a control freak.

But I try the gallery walk every year. I give the new batch the benefit of the doubt. I'll try it a few times before putting it away for the rest of the year.

And, sometimes, my babies surprise me.

In this particular case, students were examining a variety of genres. We were preparing to read Nothing but the Truth by Avi, and Janet Allen suggests having students examine the characteristics, the supports, and the challenges of each genre, as well as strategies that the reader employs when examining the genre. There are many ways to accomplish this, but I chose the gallery walk strategy. Students were allowed to pair up. They were given a chart with the genres listed, as well as the things they were looking for. (A chart is a great format for this!)

There was a great deal of frontloading. I defined each category of the chart. We talked about what it meant to "think about your thinking." We talked about various strategies that readers use (and the phrase "struggling readers" was never used--but that's for another day). Then I turned them loose.

And something beautiful happened. The plan came together. As I moved around the room to monitor, students were working. They were interacting with the text. Did they know everything? Of course not! But they asked some great questions. Their questions indicated that their level of learning and engagement was something special. Something unique.

I'll be incorporating the gallery walk again with this special little group of students. I hope that I can teach them lessons as valuable as they are teaching me.